It was a packed courtroom today as
Harlow Cuadra and his former lover Joseph Kerekes finally took the
stand in the capital murder trial of Cuadra.
Investigators allege the pair killed
gay porn producer Bryan Kocis, 44, in his Dallas Township,
Pennsylvania home in an effort to cut free Kocis' biggest star, Sean
Lockhart, from his contractual obligations. The two men operated a
rival online gay porn business and believed a film staring Lockhart
and Cuadra could be worth $1 million.
Kocis' body was found by firemen
responding to a fire at Kocis' house on the night of January 24, a
Wednesday, his neck slashed to the point of near decapitation and his
torso stabbed 28 times.
Read
previous testimony in the trial and a complete story background.
Kerekes, 35, pleaded guilty to
second-degree murder last December and is now serving a life sentence
without parole. He previously pledged he would not testify against
his former lover, and jurors heard from him today.
“I've been thinking a lot about my
parents,” Kerekes told the jury. “It would destroy them to say I
did something I didn't do.”
In his testimony, Cuadra, 27, who spent
hours on the stand, blamed Kerekes for the murder, reports WNEP an
ABC affiliate.
“Takes out this knife and slashes
him. Bryan immediately grabs his throat,” Cuadra told the court.
Teary-eyed Cuadra told jurors he was
not a killer, and that he had been sexually molested at the age of 8.
Harlow Cuadra could face the death
penalty if found guilty of the murder of Bryan Kocis.